February 05, 2006

The wide array of styles brought out a wide array of responses from me as I read. At various points I was intriqued, enraged, inspired, and (surprisingly) touched by the material. These folks shine in this book.

November 28, 2005

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I got a long email from one upset reader. The title to the email was "More space registration procedure is annoying, insulting, and ultimately of no positive benefit". The person felt we were really missing the boat by asking people for their email address in exchange for access to the free content.

I sent the email to our authors and asked them what they thought. They agreed. They had been getting feedback it was too complex for some people. It was stopping people from finding out about the book.

I had heard enough.

You will find there is no longer a barrier to access the content on the author pages.

Yes, some of the writing here is self-absorbed—the most used letter in the More Space alphabet is “I.” But the risk-taking with form and content ultimately pays off in a very readable, fresh, and insightful collection.

We are bloggers; of course we are a little self-absorbed. On second thought, that is not a jab. That is just the truth :)

November 21, 2005

One of the problems that publishers are facing is the growing market of used books. This is something that has always existed but has become more visible and more acute with Amazon's growing power in the marketplace. The common complaint is that publishers and authors should be compensated in some way for the resale of their book. I have never bought that argument, but it is interesting to now be on the other side of this.

There are now three used copies of More Space available on Amazon. I have to say this is amazing. At most, there are 300 copies of the book in people's hands. We sold around 125 copies to the authors of the book. I sent out 125 review copies to various media outlets. And in direct sales, there have been exactly 25 units reported in the first three weeks.

It is those media copies I want to talk about for a minute. Normally, publishers send out galley copies of their books ahead of the final book. Those are normally softcover and are marked as "Uncorrected Galleys - Not For Resale". They are sent out early to give magazines and newspapers more leadtime for story development.

We didn't have the time or money to print galleys. We sent finished books as our review copies. If I would have to guess, I bet that is where these books are coming from. For really popular books, you will see galleys appear on Ebay, giving bibliophiles a chance to read their favorites before everyone else. The only place those can come from are from people who are on review lists.

Again, I am going to say I am not so much bothered by the used books market. If someone buys a book and reads it (or not), I as a publisher would be happy to see that book get into someone else's hands who wants to read it. What I do not like are people profiting from their status as a reviewer of books.

It is one thing to tell a publisher or author that you are going to pass on reviewing a book for a publication. It is something else to then take that book and sell it. And I don't want to see any comments about how poorly writers are compensated. That does not justify the behavior.

I can speak personally to this as my day job has me receiving hundreds of books every year. I recycle galleys and donate finished books to my local libraries.

It might be interesting to find out where pawsible or olympia77 got their copies...

November 19, 2005

On Wednesday, I was in Chicago for the launch party of Copy Goes Here. This is a production of Chicago-based Coudal Partners. This was a little side project for them. Astronaut Projects has executive producer credits on the film and I feel my $200 was well-spent.

This movie reminded me of the other movie I have yet to premiere. I took a video camera into the printing plant and followed the book through the production process.

November 11, 2005

This past week there have been a number of people who have helped get the word out.

First I want to thank Jack Covert for reviewing More Space. As most of you know, I work for 800-CEO-READ and I asked Jack about 28 times "Are you sure you want to review it? Is it really that good?" You'll notice the disclaimer at the beginning of the review. He liked because the ideas were great and it was so different from what he sees normally.

Bertrand at Blogmania Business Blog also has things to say about the project. The trouble is that I have no idea whether it is good or bad-- it is all in Dutch. I did run it through Babel Fish and got the general idea that he liked the idea of bloggers doing a book about business.

November 07, 2005

I have added another way to to purchased the book. You can click on the PayPal link on the right and order the book directly from us. If you use the PayPal method, you will get free shipping in the US and discounted rates on international.

Why do that? I sent in email out to a list of past customers. They had all purchased stuff from us using Paypal. It seemed to make alot of sense to give them that option again.

The other reason is margin. Below is a table of the methods with what the customer pays and what AStronaut Projects gets.

Method

Book Price

Margin Taken by Distributor

Money Made

Amazon

$24.95

55%

$11.23

800-CEO-READ

$24.95

30%

$17.47

Direct

24.95

3% (PayPal)+$3.85 (USPS)

$20.35

I wanted to provide customers a number of ways to buy the book and give them the option of choosing the one they are most comfortable. We also thought we would be moving more books and would need the outside help on fulfillment. Either way, our latest option provides the best value for customers and Astronaut Projects.